The first collection of King’s essential writings for high school students and young people A Time to Break Silence presents Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most important writings and speeches—carefully selected by teachers across a variety of disciplines—in an accessible and user-friendly volume. Now, for the first time, teachers and students will be able to access Dr. King's writings not only electronically but in stand-alone book form. Arranged thematically in five parts, the collection includes nineteen selections and is introduced by award-winning author Walter Dean Myers. Included are some of Dr. King’s most well-known and frequently taught classic works, including “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream,” as well as lesser-known pieces such as “The Sword that Heals” and “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” that speak to issues young people face today.

In A Time to Break Silence, Joseph F. Mali argues that given the complexity of Nigeria as a multiethnic society, and in view of the volatile situation in the country, especially the relentless bloodshed in the northern region, there is an urgent need to amend the current process for selecting Catholic bishops in Nigeria. Presently episcopal appointments are the prerogative of the hierarchy and a few influential players. Nigerian Catholics, Mali maintains, are the best judge of their worsening situation. They deserve a chance to choose church leaders who can effectively tackle their social, political, and religious problems. Hence Mali calls on the Catholic bishops, priests, and laity to expand their views beyond the present method of nominating bishops and pave the way for all the clergy and laity to play a role in the selection process. This, according to Mali, is for the common good of the suffering church of Nigeria. Drawing on the New and the Old Testament, Mali explains the biblical foundation of the election of leaders by the people. Citing the good old saying, vox populi, vox Die (the voice of the people is the voice of God), and referring to Saint Augustine of Hippo, a distinguished African bishop who became a priest and a bishop by the will of the people, Mali concludes that Nigerian Catholics are capable of choosing priests who would make good bishops.

Although countless books have been devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., few, if any, have focused on King's appropriation of, and contribution to, the intellectual tradition of personalism. Emerging as a philosophical movement in the early 1900s, personalism is a type of philosophical idealism that has a number of affinities with Christianity, such as a focus on a personal God and the sanctity of persons. Burrow points to similarities and dissimilarities between personalism and the social gospel movement with its call to churchgoers to involve themselves in the welfare of both individuals and society. He argues that King's adoption of personalism represented the fusion of his black Christian faith and his commitment not only to the social gospel of Rauschenbusch, but most especially to the social gospelism practiced by his grandfather, father, and black preacher-scholars at Morehouse College. Burrow devotes much-needed attention both to King's conviction that the universe is value-infused and to the implications of this ideology for King's views on human dignity and his concept of the "Beloved Community." Burrow also sheds light on King’s doctrine of God. He contends that King's view of God has been uncritically and erroneously relegated by black liberation theologians to the general category of "theistic absolutism" and he offers corrections to what he believes are misinterpretations of this and other aspects of King’s thought. He concludes with an application of King’s personalism to present-day social problems, particularly as they pertain to violence in the black community. This book is a useful and fresh contribution to our understanding of the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. It will be read with interest by ethicists, theologians, philosophers, and social historians.

This reader provides a wealth of political and diplomatic primary source documents, including many selections illustrated with photographs. Each document is preceded by a headnote that places the document within a historical context. Headnotes conclude with Questions to Consider, which stimulate comprehension of the document and provide comparative analysis of related selections.